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Review of 1:72 Country Houses by Italeri
Fusilier Roly Hermans reviews two country house kits produced by Italeri.
For me, wargaming is a highly visual hobby. If I am not engaged by the appearance of a wargame, I find it hard to become interested in playing the game. This applies as much to the terrain as the miniatures. So I'm always on the lookout for attractive scenery items to add to the visual feast.
Recently I heard about Italeri's launch of two plastic country houses kits in 1:72 scale. I initially ignored them, as I thought they would be way too small to go with my 25/28mm armies. But then I remembered that the buildings I had scratch-built myself (see separate article) were also much too small for my figures, but they didn't look out-of-place on the wargames table. So I splashed out and bought the two kits. And now I'm glad I did!
One kit depicts a plain rectangular house with a pantiled roof and brick walls covered with remnants of stucco.
The other kit is slightly lower, with an off-centre ridge line, and an arched porch on the front ground floor.
I don't know too much about regional architecture, but I suspect the style is vaguely Italian, though it would do for any Mediterranean country, and could suit any number of periods from ancients right through to modern.
The walls are dotted with small regularly-spaced shuttered windows, with no frames or glazing. The window sills, lintels and shutters all come as separate parts to be glued on. The lack of glazing is not a problem, as I have heard that Mediterranean houses often only had shutters. The shutters themselves are designed to be glued in an open position only. I attached some of them at slight angles to give a bit more character to my houses.
There is an interior floor provided for the second storey, and the roof is made in such a way that it can be easily left unglued so that it can be lifted off to place figures inside. The interior is very basic – a wooden upper floor and a sort of stone stove, but no interior detail on the walls. However, it would be quite easy to add your own interior, if you wished.
The only real giveaway that these houses are designed for 1:72 scale figures, rather than those 25/28mms tall, is that the doors are tiny. I solved this quite simply by using a sharp craft knife to cut the door openings a few millimetres taller, and then gluing in the doors with some room to add a step beneath them. This means the actual door is still the same size, but the bigger opening makes it appear taller.
Painting was easy. I sprayed the finished models matt black, using my normal black automotive primer aerosol. Then I dry-brushed a range of reddish brown, ochre and pink coats, finishing off with a light drybrush of white to pick out the details. The whole job (apart from waiting for the primer to dry) took me about an hour for each model.
The kits are not made of the same soft plastic that Italeri's 1:72 scale figures are made of. Instead, a very sturdy (and remarkably heavy) plastic is used. This means they glue together easily, and will be very robust.
There are plenty of lugs and grooves to hold the various parts together. Some joins are still a bit rough, though - for instance, you can clearly see where the walls join together on the corner stones. That is not a problem for a model designed to be seen from a distance on the wargames table, but if I was going to use this model in a diorama, it would take quite a bit of filing and filling to disguise these join-marks.
The ridge tiles on the roof are also not the best of fits, though once painted you don't notice the gap too much. The chimney has no flat place on the roof to attach it to, so perches awkwardly on top of the pantiles. But despite these small criticisms, the end result is a nice building which is perfectly suitable for wargames purposes.
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Both houses are surprisingly big, considering they are designed for 1:72nd scale figures. The plain country house measures 13cms long, 10cms wide and over 12cms high. The house with the porch is over 14cms long, 10cms wide and 10cms high.
I would totally recommend these houses. Easy to build, easy to paint, and very attractive. The only downside is that, as they are mass-produced, I think you'll see the same two houses on nearly every wargames table in the world before too long! Fortunately they can be painted in a myriad of different colours, and also lend themselves to conversion.
Rumour has it that Italeri will produce two Berlin houses next in this range.
